Discos, fun runs and dancing girls

After our rowing day last Saturday...we had a relaxing Sunday morning at home...  To ensure we saw the sky and breathed some fresh air, we strolled up to the local playground...

Here's Keira relaxing at the playground... And a shot of helpful Claire, buckling Keira into the swing.

On the way home, Zoe returned home (who lives a few doors up) and invited us in for a little while... Claire's starting to make friends in the street now she's been at school a while.

During the week, the girls decided it was almost winter, and started preparing accordingly... Their preparations involved gloves, beanies and music!

A quick trip to Castle Hill for daddy's haircut was a good enough opportunity for the girls to pose...

And an opportunity for a cupcake...

Friday night was time for Claire's first school disco... As the girls are both so into their music, Keira insisted on attending!

The girls were both so excited, and talked about the night all week... And got themselves all dressed up (notice they both have matching bags and jewellery, which is all their own doing).

As expected, the disco was noisy and crowded... the girls both absolutely loved the night, and both danced all evening... Even Keira braved the dance floor carefully following the year 6 girls on stage to learn some new moves.





After the disco, the highlight of the night seemed to be the ice blocks...

After such a big weekend, mum and dad looked forward to a weekend away in the Hunter Valley...  The girls went to grandma & grandads, to have a lot of fun...  Saturday was spent with Karen and Lewis.   Keira was finally brave enough to give Lewis a big cuddle...

Sunday started with a trip to a fun run... Here's Grandad and Keira leading the pack...

Auntie Karen, Lewis, Claire & Keira...

A proud grandad with his running girls...

Lastly, a photo of the mum's and dad's weekend away...

A day on the water...

This morning we woke up early and headed out to the Lane Cove National Park, to take the girls on their first ever row boat...  Akira (Claire's classmate) and Emika (his sister joined us for the day...

Here are the kids examining the boats...carefully deciding who will take what boat...

The kids are set...Keira even did a bit of modelling of the stylish life jacket...

The power for the day was provided by daddy....

While the girls sat back and enjoyed the ride...

Emika asked if she could go in our boat, as she thought we were going faster...

We stopped along the river for a picnic lunch...

 The kids had sausage sandwiches, chips and cookies...

Here's Claire in her flirty mode...part 1 

and 2...

Keira had a great time running around with Akira and Emika, the kids explored the bush, followed some paths, saw a large lizard by the water and generally had a lot of fun.

After a slow row back to the boat she, it was time for some ice cream...

And after all that fun on the water, we all headed back home for a swim in the pool.

Overall a great day on and in the water.

Another great weekend...

What a good weekend... Saturday started with the typical chores, washing, cleaning, mowing and the like... But as the sun was out in strength (for the first time in what seems like weeks) we took advantage and spent almost an hour in the pool with the girls...

After dinner, we decided it would be a great opportunity to test out the tent, and let the girls spend their first night ever sleeping under canvas.

The girls loved it, and were excited by the whole thing... from the sleeping bags to torches...
Here they are all snuggled up ready for bed...

But as it got dark after they laid down... the girls decided to explore the garden by torch light... Its easy to forget how different the familiar surroundings of the garden are by torch light.

The girls managed to stay in the tent all night, even surviving the random noises and rustling which is so essential to camping.  They were both so happy, they were upset when dad packed up the tent... Hopefully this is the start of many camping adventures!

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After waking up and exploring the morning at dawn, we headed into town for a busy day.  First stop was the Powerhouse Museum.  We had intended to go to the Maritime Museum, but thought the girls would probably enjoy the Wiggles exhibition more...

Whilst Keira loved the Wiggles exhibition, and has been raving all day about the activities she undertook, Claire declared that she was 'too big' for the Wiggles, and wanted to explore the rest of the museum and do big-kid things.  We settled in the science/chemistry area, where she played with electricity generation and chemical reactions (including her favourite 'super silly slime show').

Next stop was the Monorail... The girls have never been on it before, and as it is being decommissioned in June/July of this year, we thought we had better let them experience it before its gone for good!

An opportunity to get the family in a shot together...

Next stop... Grill'd for some yummy burgers...  Our girls haven't really ever been into burgers, but today for some reason they loved them...

 After stuffing our faces with delicious burgers and chips... next we headed to San Churro's...where the girls alter-ego's were revealed... chocolate monsters on a rampage!

Last step for the day was down to Darling Quarter for a splash in the playground.  Keira by this stage was a bit tired, so sat out, but Claire got right into the fun and went a bit crazy

A nice relaxing evening and that's it, weekend over... Until next weekend!